Financial

Corporate governance is heavily regulated in Australia. A director's duty to avoid a conflict of interest was introduced to ensure that directors act in the best interests of the company. A breach of the duty to avoid any conflict of interest will have serious consequences for both the director and the company. Mitchell Zadow explains.

A contract is an agreement between two parties that is intended to be enforceable by law. Verbal agreements are contracts that have been agreed by spoken communication.In contrast, a written contract is an agreement that is recorded in writing and is signed by the parties to evidence their agreement. There are certain types of contracts which must be in writing, and this includes contracts for buying or selling houses, or buying a car from a licensed dealer or trader.

Under section 18 of the ACL, persons involved in trade or commerce are prohibited from engaging in conduct that is misleading or deceptive. This includes a prohibition of conduct that is likely to mislead or deceive. Importantly, there is no requirement that the misleading conduct be intentional, or that anyone suffer any loss or damage as a result of the conduct. Claims of misleading and deceptive conduct can be made by the ACCC or by anyone to whom the misleading conduct was directed – though in the latter case, this would be unlikely to occur unless some loss or damage had been suffered.